POINTS FINISH AS KADE VERWEY FIGHTS ON AT OULTON PARK

KADE Verwey is hoping to push for top results in the Pirelli National Junior Superstock championship this coming weekend after salvaging a points finish at Oulton Park.

The Silverstone-based racer fought through bike setup issues to bring his Team XG Racing Kawasaki home in 15th after a double-header round in Cheshire.

And with a trying weekend now behind him, he is back in the hunt for a podium finish at this weekend’s penultimate round.

Following a number of setup changes during free practice on Friday, Kade was forced to abandon changes as rain rolled in for qualifying, and although he was running inside the top 12, he was held up near the end of his final and fastest lap of the session and the 21-year-old ended in 20th place.

With a mostly dry track in front of him for the opening race of the weekend on Saturday, he made a quick getaway and got ahead of a few riders on the first lap before dropping back to 18th and regaining momentum to retake 17th, which he held all the way to the chequered flag – revealing further setup changes required.

Improving on his starting spot for race two, Kade took off from 18th on Sunday’s grid and again picked off another rider on the opening lap. He squeezed past another rider on lap seven and yet another the very next time around, crossing the line 15th in a six-way battle for 13th spot.

But he now looks ahead to Donington Park this weekend, one of his favourite tracks, where previous rounds have given him and the team key setup information he hopes to take advantage of.

Kade Verwey:
“We have a setup we’ve used at most of the tracks which is generally a good base and I was expecting to come to Oulton using that setup,” Kade said. “But unfortunately, with limited track time it didn’t quite work out as I expected. We had to make quite a few big changes throughout the weekend.

“In FP2 it was dry and we tried a new setup but I couldn’t get on with it at all. We needed to make significant changes with limited track time. Unfortunately, qualifying was wet so we couldn’t test that setup.

“Race one was dry, but damp in sections around the track, so it was quite sketchy. Our new settings were better, but the bike still wasn’t doing what I needed it to do.

“We ended up changing the bike again and went out in evening practice and it was again performing better but it still wasn’t right. We made another big change ahead of the race which we don’t like to do.

“Race two was a tough race and I dropped my time by about a second between race one and two, and the bike felt so much better.

“I’m not particularly happy with my pace for the weekend at Oulton but I’m happy I finished both races, and didn’t get taken out!

“I’m really looking forward to Donington, I know I can go well there, and we have a good base setup for there. Hopefully we can achieve the result we’ve been going for.”

Photo courtesy of Bonnie Lane

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